There’s a program that shows up on my
local TV periodically, “Things That Aren’t Here Any More,” “here“ being Los Angeles. It’s narrated by a reporter popular in the area for many years, Ralph Story (who, sadly,
isn’t here any more either).
His things were really “things” -- old
landmark buildings, restaurants, street cars, historic hot dog stands. His era
(and mine) came before some other, un-material but maybe more important things
faded out. “Shame” comes to mind
My old dictionary calls shame a disturbed
or painful feeling of guilt or blameworthiness. It used to have a powerful preventive
effect on would-be evildoers, and a corrective effect on wrongdoers, but that doesn’t
happen any more. The politician caught taking bribes, the CEO found embezzling
money from his hedge fund -- back in the day, the perpetrator would go to
ground (and eventually prison) and his family would sneak out of town on the midnight
milk train. Not that they were also guilty, but because they were ashamed.
There’s still a society or two here or there where the guy with the big
office and the biggest paycheck will step down even if someone else has caused the
company to be at fault. If he’s really serious he’ll commit suicide.
But this is an age and a society where you
can settle a legal case with every evidence of being guilty but still not admit guilt. If you’re an officer of a corporation, you’re
just about immune. Maybe a fine will be imposed on the corporation (at worst) but
the stockholders will pay that. The guy at the top who caused the whole problem may
just as easily get a bonus, go on the TV talk shows, and author a book. The crooked politician may run for office
while under indictment, and stage a political comeback when he gets out of the
slammer. The missing ingredient is shame.
Earlier generations took a sterner view.
Putting the offender on display with his head and hands protruding from the
stocks would almost certainly have diverted some observers’ dark impulses into
more socially acceptable channels. The guy on display also got to think at
leisure about what it was that put him there and decide whether it was a good
idea and worth doing again. You’ll still read about someone being pilloried -- but it’s
a figure of speech today. Bring back the real thing? You could argue it. Is
the pillory crafters’ guild still around?
Keep
in mind, it was probably uncomfortable as hell, but the primary objective
wasn’t to inflict physical pain; it was shaming. You were set out in the public
square for all your neighbors to see and think about what you’d done.
We’d have to re-educate a large segment
of the public about what shame is, but I’d be for it. Some time in the stocks could
adjust the attitude of even a celebrity CEO or a securely gerrymandered incumbent
congressperson. Might even humble an errant Influencer or Thought Leader.The Missing Ingredient
